Children's Services hope to make county inhospitable to child abusers.

The Child Exploitation Strategy and Action Plan was discussed at a meeting of the Health and Care scrutiny committee on Monday, November 2.

Head of Children’s Social Services, Jan Coles, said the authority is already working in the area, and needed the strategy to provide a solid framework for the future.

The council is working alongside Dyfed-Powys Police in this area.

Former Adult Social Services portfolio holder, Councillor Stephen Hayes, said: “This is such a complex area, I applaud you for tackling it.

“The child’s voice is paramount, but that is quite a difficult line to take when a child may consider, they are giving informed consent to activity in this area.

“You may need to revisit how you articulate that.

“The child’s involvement in the conversation is very important but theirs may not be the deciding voice whether exploitation criminally or sexually is taking place.”

He added that some perpetrators might also be victims or children themselves having suffered abuse in the past, Councillor Hayes wanted to see this acknowledged in the strategy.

Ms Coles replied: “It is possible to both prioritise the voice of children in the way we work and work with them.

“While recognising, they have been groomed and have really difficult experiences.

“They absolutely will not have the final say over deciding if someone is exploiting them or not.”

Ms Coles recalled a harrowing case she worked on at a previous job, where a teenager was raped by a man who also arranged for her to be routinely gang raped.

Ms Coles said: “She looked me in the eye and said, ‘you’ve taken away the only good thing in my life.’

“The fact she had that view was not a reason for us not to make sure that man was arrested.

“What we need to do is stick with that young person and continue to support them through the experience.

“None of this is easy, we won’t shy away from it because it’s complex, we’ll put in the resources that are needed, and tackle it.”

“We are determined to make Powys an inhospitable place for those who want to exploit our children and young people.”

This is also an area which was seen to have weaknesses in the critical Care Inspectorate Wales report into Children’s Services from 2017.

It highlighted previous failures in safeguarding children at heightened risk of sexual exploitation, and who had been sexually exploited.

Ms Coles explained that restructuring the service to address this area, had been a key priority.

Councillors are expected to endorse the strategy at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, November 10.